Walk 01/2010 – Geddington

Friday 1st January 2010

What a great way to start the New Year – out in the crisp fresh air after the night before.

We welcomed new walker Cheryl, who works for the Forestry Commission, so is well informed on the woodlands and its inhabitants from Bedford to Sherwood [Ed – that’s really impressive knowing which woodland inhabitants come from between Bedford and Sherwood!], and at Geddington, we welcomed Roger from Huntingdon.

Geddington is steeped in history and religion, the church there was originally built in Saxon times and is mentioned in the Doomsday Book. We circled and at one point crossed Geddington Chase – one of the last remnants of the Royal and ancient Rockingham forest. We should have kept our eyes peeled as according to the history books, whilst imprisoned in Derbyshire, Mary Queen of Scots was robbed by 2 men, who when captured later in London, confessed to hiding the stolen money and jewellery in Geddington Chase and has never been recovered.

We hadn’t gone far when we had our first sighting of wildlife – a female fallow deer, followed by 2 sightings of red kites.

We encountered a rather aggressive man asking us to walk behind his dog kennels and pointing out it was private property that we were on, even though we were following the route signs – obviously full of festive cheer!! But he wasn’t as odd as the man standing in the field watching us from afar – was he a scarecrow – who knows.

The going was OK up to the coffee break – (taken by the village frozen pond with 2 wooden benches to rest our bones) as we were mainly walking over frozen fields but afterwards it was a different matter.

For the record, 3 of the slower walkers (me included) were at one point leading the walk, practically running up a hill due to 4 frisky horses in the field – adrenaline is a marvelous thing when it kicks in, even with thick clods of mud stuck to your boots!

At one point Cheryl thought she could see Boughton House in the distance with its 365 windows – apparently one for each day, but it was quite misty and hard to make out exactly what the shape was.

After walk drink was at The White Horse – a nice looking pub – from the outside.

Report – Sue

Pictures – Alan

Walk rating – Pretty average

Hey, I put a lot of effort into getting my hair right for this shot, and you come along with a funny hat on!

There were plenty of muddy fields.

We came across a pixie in a tree.